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Usefulness of podcasts to provide public education on prostate cancer genetics

Prostate Cancer and Prostatic Diseases volume 26, pages 772–777 (2023)Cite this article

Subjects

Abstract

Background

Podcasts, or episodic digital audio recordings, represent a novel way to reach large audiences for public education. Genetic evaluation has important implications for prostate cancer (PCa) care but is underutilized. We created a series of five podcasts about PCa genetics and tested their usefulness in raising awareness and providing education to lay audiences.

Methods

We recruited 157 men and women from the general public and 100 patients with PCa from across the U.S., who listened to a podcast and completed an online survey. The primary outcome was the perceived usefulness of the podcast (score ≥5 on a published 7-point Likert scale). Secondary outcomes were relevance to informational needs, satisfaction and ease of use, as well as genetic knowledge and attitudes toward genetic testing after listening to the podcasts.

Results

The podcasts were associated with high mean scores for perceived usefulness (5.6/7), relevance to informational needs (5.6/7), satisfaction (5.8/7), and ease of use (5.9/7). After listening to the podcasts, 80–100% correctly answered most key knowledge questions about PCa genetics, and 85% had a positive attitude toward genetic testing. On multivariable analysis, the perceived usefulness of the podcasts was higher among Black/Hispanic adults (p = 0.05) and those with a family history of PCa (p = 0.01).

Conclusions

A podcast series on PCa genetics was perceived as useful and associated with high rates of knowledge for patients with PCa and the general public. Podcasts represent a promising new educational tool to raise awareness about PCa genetic evaluation, particularly for high-risk groups.

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Data availability

Data will be available only for health/medical/biomedical research purposes. Interested investigators will be required to submit a formal letter of intent outlining research aims, rationale, and approach. Furthermore, documentation of local IRB approval, including a description of type of review, should be submitted with the data request. A Data Use Agreement must be signed by the Institutions involved before any data are released.

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Acknowledgements

This study is supported by the Department of Defense (W81XWH2010310).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Stacy Loeb, Tatiana Sanchez Nolasco, Katherine Siu & Nataliya Byrne

  2. Department of Population Health, New York University, New York, NY, USA

    Stacy Loeb, Tatiana Sanchez Nolasco, Katherine Siu & Nataliya Byrne

  3. The Department of Surgery/Urology, Manhattan Veterans Affairs Medical Center, New York, NY, USA

    Stacy Loeb

  4. The Division of Clinical Cancer Genetics, Yale University School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center, New Haven, CT, USA

    Veda N. Giri

Authors
  1. Stacy Loeb
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  2. Tatiana Sanchez Nolasco
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  3. Katherine Siu
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  4. Nataliya Byrne
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  5. Veda N. Giri
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Contributions

Conception and design (SL, VNG), Data acquisition (SL, TSN, NB), Data analysis and interpretation (all), Drafting the manuscript (SL), Critical revision of manuscript (all), Statistical analysis (KS), Supervision (SL, VNG).

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Stacy Loeb.

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Competing interests

SL declares equity in Gilead, unrelated to the current study.

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Loeb, S., Sanchez Nolasco, T., Siu, K. et al. Usefulness of podcasts to provide public education on prostate cancer genetics. Prostate Cancer Prostatic Dis 26, 772–777 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41391-023-00648-4

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